Is Xiamen Safe For Tourists? Crime Rates & Safety

Xiamen Crime Rate & Safety Index

• Crime index: ~21 (Very Low)
• Safety index: ~79
• Overall safety risk: LOW

As of 2026, Numbeo puts Xiamen at roughly a 21 crime index and a 79 safety index on a 0 to 100 scale, with the overall level of crime rated Very Low. Treat those for what they are: crowd-sourced perception from a small sample of residents and visitors, not police records, so read them as a rough temperature reading rather than gospel. Either way the signal is the same, and it holds up on the ground: this coastal island is one of the safest places to visit in China. Xiamen still ranks among the country’s top ten most livable cities, and it carries the national honors to match, a National Garden City known for clean air, green space and a mild subtropical climate. Gulangyu Island is the headline draw, a car-free UNESCO World Heritage Site laced with colonial-era mansions that thousands of tourists and Chinese locals visit every year. There are, however, a few minor criminal risks worth knowing about before you go.

Safety In Xiamen

• Pickpocketing Risks: Pickpocketing continues to be the primary threat for tourists visiting China. Although the problem of pickpocketing in Xiamen is relatively lower than other cities such as Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong, tourists have to be extra vigilant with their wallets, especially in railway/ bus stations and other places where tourist visits are frequent. Some of the places to avoid or stay alert with your wallets in Xiamen are Xiada Xicun stop, Fuhuan Dasha stop, Taihe Huayuan stop, Houpu road, SM shopping mall area, and Lvling road.
• Transportation Risks: Getting around is easy and low-risk. The Xiamen Metro has run since December 2017 and now covers three lines and about 70 stations; Line 1 crosses a sea causeway and links the island to the mainland, and the whole network is clean, cheap and simple to follow. Buses fill the gaps. The one thing to watch is the occasional unlicensed taxi that waits outside stations and tourist spots to overcharge a visitor. Book a car through Didi (the local ride-hailing app) or a metered cab rather than flagging one down, so the route and the fare are logged and the argument never starts.
• Terrorism: Xiamen is an extremely safe city in terms of any kind of terrorist activities. In fact, Xiamen must be amongst the safest cities in China in terms of rare frequency of any kind of violent criminal/terrorist activities.
• Mugging: Except for some minor scams and pickpocketing incidents, the risks of mugging in Xiamen are extremely LOW as well.

Scams In Xiamen To Avoid

Scams are another security measure that is significantly lesser in Xiamen as compared to other cities in China, such as counterfeit currencies, where the person approaches the tourists to exchange their currencies for Chinese Yuan with minimal complications. It is, therefore, best to exchange one’s currency only in genuine offices or airports where the chances of receiving counterfeit bills are minimal. Other scams may include people volunteering to help tourists explore Gulangyu Island only to extort money from them later, or take them to bars around the city and let them buy drinks/ food for them.

How safe is Xiamen for solo female travelers?

Very safe. Xiamen is largely a women-safe city, and women traveling alone move around the island, the ferries and Gulangyu at all hours without trouble. The usual big-city caution applies if you take a solo walk down a quiet street late at night, but the everyday risk is petty, not violent. Stick to booked cars after dark, keep your bag zipped in the crowds, and you will find Xiamen one of the most comfortable places in China to travel on your own.

So is Xiamen safe? The honest verdict

Overall, Xiamen Island is significantly safer than most modern Chinese cities. There are minimal precautions to undertake, and the place offers a better vacation option with beaches and an exquisite island experience as well. Xiamen is safe for tourists with very little to worry about. If you are here for business rather than the beaches, a local Xiamen interpreter handles the practical side: the taxis, the suppliers and the occasional scam.